How The Chicago Bears Elevated Their Status With Future Free Agents

The NFL is a difficult place under normal circumstances. With the ongoing COVID-19 nightmare, it's become one headache after another. The league is doing everything in its power to start its season on time. Yet a lot of players are concerned about just how much it can protect them against the virus. This is before getting into an overlooked consequence. Namely how teams have withheld money from recently acquired free agents due to uncertainty over whether a season will be played. Well, except the Chicago Bears anyway.

Albert Breer of the MMQB explained using free agent cornerback Trae Waynes as an example. The veteran agreed to a three-year contract with the Cincinnati Bengals that included $15 million in guarantees back in March. To date, he hasn't seen a single cent of it. This is because the Bengals have refused to let him take a physical. If passed, they would be forced to honor the contract and start paying him.

A tactic several teams have used.

"While some teams (Miami, Cleveland, Green Bay) have come up with solutions, a significant number have not. In fact, one agent told me on Wednesday that a team exec leveled with him recently, and said they wouldn’t allow for a deal to be finalized because the owner feared the season could be canceled (if the pandemic worsens) and he didn’t want to pay out cash he may not be able to recoup.

Along the way, Waynes’s agents did go to union lead lawyer Tom DePaso on this, and found that the teams were within their rights to leave deals undone as a result of not wanting to do off-campus physicals."

Chicago Bears have honored their deals despite this issue

This is where the Bears may have actually done themselves a big favor in the long term. They did their fair share of considerable spending in free agency. This included a five-year deal for pass rusher Robert Quinn at $70 million including $30 million guaranteed. Even more than Waynes was promised. Has the team taken that same tactic as the Bengals? Nope. Quinn's signing was made official all the way back in April. So he's going to get his money.

This matters. Why? Namely because players and the NFLPA will undoubtedly remember which teams decided to withhold the money they promised. That could steer them in different directions. By honoring their contracts, the Bears have set themselves up to potentially land quality free agents in the future even if it might cost them a bit in the short-term.